Sai language

Sound Changes

1. Loss of final short vowels.
2. The vowel /ā/ shifts to /ē/ in stressed syllables.
3. Consonant /s/ disappears between vowels.
4. Diphthongization: /i/, /u/ become /ai/, /au/ in open syllables.
5. Lenition: /k/ shifts to /x/ in word-final position.
6. Assimilation: /n/ to /m/ before bilabial consonants.
7. Intervocalic /h/ disappears.
8. Fronting of /k/ to /tʃ/ before /i/, /e/.
9. Voiceless stops /p/, /t/, /k/ become voiced between vowels.
10. Gemination (doubling) of consonants after short vowels.
11. Deletion of unstressed /a/ in word-medial position.
12. Vowel /a/ is raised to /e/ in closed unstressed syllables.
13. The clusters /tr/, /dr/, /kr/ simplify to /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /kʃ/.
14. Word-initial /s/ becomes /h/.
15. All long vowels shorten in closed syllables.

Root Languages

• Proto-Alfnehr language

Spoken by

• Sai people